For their part, Festival Mall issued the following statements related to the incident:

“At 8:45 PM on Sunday, April 15, 2018, an incident happened involving a white Innova van which was accidentally driven into one of the establishments in Festival Mall. Instead of stepping on the brakes, the driver accidentally stepped on the gas while maneuvering, and crashed into Gerry’s Grill.

As a result, nine people were injured, including the driver. Festival Mall operations staff had brought the wounded to nearby Asian Hospital for immediate treatment and observation.”

From gmanetwork.com

They then issued another update the day after related to the incident:

To our valued shoppers and business partners:

After the incident last night, we are relieved to announce that the customers and the driver involved sustained minor injuries and are now safe. Gerry’s Grill is also back to its regular operations and ready to serve you today.

We would like to extend our most profound appreciation to everyone who helped during this unforeseen event and those who prayed for the injured customers.

Thank you very much.

We are calling on everyone to please drive safely especially in closed grounds so incidents like this one will not happen again.

The driver, his passengers and most especially the unsuspecting diners could have been hurt more. Thank God, everyone is okay.